Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Serbia offers 25 years of internationally recognized autonomy for Kosovo

Koha Ditore carries an interview with Aleksandar Simic, advisor to Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. He said the autonomy that Serbia offers to Kosovo is a broad autonomy within Serbia and the Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

‘This autonomy would be guaranteed with an international agreement and by powerful international actors such as the United States, EU and Russia, and would be under the umbrella of the United Nations,’ Simic was quoted as saying. ‘There are some opinions in Belgrade that this agreement would last 20 to 25 years and could then be renewed, maybe with some changes or even under the same terms.’

Simic said the substance of this autonomy would imply full legislative, executive and judicial power for Kosovo without certain elements that are important for international sovereignty and the protection of existing borders in the Balkans.

‘This means that the southern province would not have its army and that Kosovo Albanians would not be obliged to sign with the army of Serbia or that of the Union of Serbia and Montenegro. This would also imply a strong presence of NATO in the province,’ said Simic, adding that some other elements of state sovereignty would remain under Belgrade’s control.

According to Simic, the broad autonomy would also enable the Serb population and maybe some other communities that consider Belgrade their centre, to have special and direct connections with Belgrade, especially in areas such as education, healthcare, social welfare, culture, among others.

Simic also did not rule out the possibility that Kosovo Albanians could have their seats in Belgrade’s parliament in accordance with the number of the population.

Simic was quoted as saying that Belgrade has no illusions that Albanians in Kosovo would easily accept such autonomy. But he added that ‘history is a process in which things change and Belgrade’s position is that serious talks between Belgrade and Pristina, between Albanians and Serbs, should lead toward a possible compromise.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah! I guess that's as close as Belgrade can possibly get to admit that the Kosovo is gone - GONE. They know they're finished and that whatever deal they can get that will leave them in power will definitely make sense for the Serbs.

Anonymous said...

This is typical Milosevic politics, Kosovar Albanians should never accept anything other than Independence.

Anonymous said...

Yeah. I´ve told it before and I tell iy again. There will be no total independence, ie not a own country. US is also on this spot. I have met Albanian lobbyists here in US and there are totally overrunned now. Wait.

Anonymous said...

I think you are mistaken.

It's the serbs that constantly are moving their position... towards ours, which is independence. Maybe it will not be total independence right away, but within number of years it will happen.

What kind of solution is to have Nato troops there for another 25 years? Especially since the alliance wants to move those troops away to other areas?
The serbs know that they've lost and these are the last attempts to do something. And it's more for the domestic opinion than anything else...
We'll see

Tosi
Sweden

Anonymous said...

Yesterday I read a lame statement by Draskovic, today I read a lamer statement by this guy. What happened to no autonomy no independence; to the Bosnia model, to the Tyrol model, to less than independence but more than autonomy model????? Today we have this guy offering contracts who sounds a lot like that Dr. Faustus play. Make a contract with the devil ( Serbia) and you'll enjoy your life. Give me a break. The Serbs are beacoming lamer and lamer as each day passes. Yogoslavia is an entity that no longer exist and Kosova is cannot be a part of a non-existing entity. Kosova for a few years will be like it is now with the only important change that it will be recognized as an independent state.

Anonymous said...

Excuse the spelling mistakes.

Anonymous said...

What is Kosova? I see Kosovo on the map, but no Kosova.

Anonymous said...

Kosova? Where is that on the map?

Anonymous said...

I see it from another angle. It is a risk for Serbia to do this, but I think they're betting on a few things to bolster their hold on Kosova. One, with a deal complete, the rest of the world stops paying attention. Two, Serb communities in Kosova can choose to be under the government in Belgrade. Of course they will do that, making "de facto" independence a slim possibility without more conflict. Three, with no Kosova army, does Kosova really exist? Without an army, it's awfully difficult to have a country. But, maybe the situation has changed enough to make this a good option for Kosova. Politics without violence would be a good change.

Anonymous said...

this site is nothing more then a pathetic blog, the way its written isnt even worthy of kindergarden status.

its propaganda in its true form.

why do you people always refer to milosevic and a serbia that was last decade.

its 2005.

kosovo and metohija is serbian and christian spiritual land. what would happen if mecca was suddenly controlled by the USA ?

Anonymous said...

Why not close the accounts with Serbia with 1999's war? Why have another war in 25 years?

We all know America will deliver independence, whatever you want to call it. What has been surprising me this last month is that Europe is also moving in that direction. They probably want to ship the refugees home so with the Swiss in, expect the Germans, Austrians, and then Scandinavians to become avid lovers of this noble idea.

Ari
Norway

Anonymous said...

This report can be summarised as follows:

"Serbs want to buy time. A lot of time."

"World answers: Thanks but, no thanks! We have no time to sell."

Anonymous said...

Yes Kosova is a christian cradle of culture, an Albanian christian cradle that is.

Btw, where do you see Serbia on the map? All I see is Serbia and Montenegro...Serbs wake up you're not independent yourself!

Anonymous said...

RE: At 8:16 AM, Anonymous said...
"Yes Kosova is a christian cradle of culture, an Albanian christian cradle that is."

Does this comment mean that Albanians in Kosovo now see as opportune to convert back to Christianity, since the supreme masters in the region are not Muslims anymore?

Anonymous said...

Chris, your constant tirades on Albanian history, however accurate, are often too long and undermine your main points in your postings. Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

yes ,please give us another thought some more lessons please we'll stop existing if you don't, you f... idiot snake,

Anonymous said...

I'm albanian and even i dont think Kosova will get total independence anytime soon. Something like the Souty Tyrol model or Along Islands model will fit Kosova. Whether or not the kosovars will react violently is the question.

Anonymous said...

To: 1:42 PM blogger

Good afternoon Mr. Draskovic.
How do you do?

Anonymous said...

I am a Serb and I think Kosova will gain unconditional independence by next year.
How are you doing 1:42 blogger, or should I call Mr. Draskovic?

Anonymous said...

Why did you guys misspell Kosovo? Pretty crappy site here...

Anonymous said...

Kosova, Kosovo. Italy, Italia. Germany, Deutchland. etc. So what?

Anonymous said...

is this a propaganda site?

Anonymous said...

Chris (3:58pm), I absolutely see your point, but unfortunately the quality of opposite-minded bloggers on this site probably means that they don't spend the time or effort to read your postings. No fault to you though!

Anonymous said...

It is an outright lie that the majority of Serbs in Kosovo are refugees from Croatia/Bosnia. The number of refugees from Bosnai/Croatia settled in Ksovoo is around 7000. Barely a drop in the bucket.

The vast majority of Kosovar Serbs have been in Kosovo for nearly a thousand years. Serbs have had a significant presence in Kosovo since the 900's, as our 1000 year old chuches all over the province prove.

Where are all the 1000 year old Albanain structures in Kosovo?

Anonymous said...

It is an outright lie that the majority of Serbs in Kosovo are refugees from Croatia/Bosnia. The number of refugees from Bosnai/Croatia settled in Ksovoo is around 7000. Barely a drop in the bucket.

The vast majority of Kosovar Serbs have been in Kosovo for nearly a thousand years. Serbs have had a significant presence in Kosovo since the 900's, as our 1000 year old chuches all over the province prove.

Where are all the 1000 year old Albanain structures in Kosovo?

Anonymous said...

Our 3000 year old structures are under what you call yours. The majority of your churches were Albanian first than you sent colons from all the ghettos of Serbia who destryed our structures or built your pretty recent structures over them.
The Dardanian goddes structure is at least 3500 years old. The Serb military tried to steal it during the war. I wonder why they'd be interested in stealing if it was crafted only lately? Maybe cause it proved that we've been leaving there at least since the pelasgic times.There are even ancient Egyptian scripts that mention us, the Dardans.

Anonymous said...

I meant the Dardanian Goddes statue not structure.

Anonymous said...

Pure Propaganda. Anyone studying propaganda, please use this site as an example :)

whats the figure of destroyed serbian churches since NATO forces entered Kosovo?

in ten years time youll be saying that no serbian churches ever existed on kosovo...

Anonymous said...

Let the Albanians have Kosovo, why not? Muslims want all the Christan lands, I still hope someone sends a nuke to Mecca one day. Muslims cannot be stopped

Anonymous said...

Hehe… this (12:48) is the most pathetic and the most primitive Serb that has blogged on this blogger so far. You underestimate the Albanian religious diversity (Catholics, Orthodoxs, Muslims, Jews). Furthermore, Kosovar Muslims are not religious at all.
Religion is used as a propaganda tool by the Serbians to justifie their war crimes and to manipulate the Europeans. What a pathetic person you are L

Have you actually met an Albanian Christian before? I suppose not since all the Albanians to the Serbs are Muslims due to the fact that they have been irreversibly brainwashed.
An Albanian Catholic

Anonymous said...

This is absurd...

The link between Albanians and Illyrians is not taken seriously by the majority of historians. For one thing, Illyrian belonged to the centum half of the indo-European family of languages, while Albanian belongs to the satem half, so it is impossible that Albanian descends from Illyrian. Don't take my word for it though, ask a professional linguist.

Second of all, even if Albanains were Illyrians (which they're not) that still wouldn't make the Serbian churches Albanian. There is no evidence that Illyrians built any churches in Kosovo. The churches that were in Kosovo prior to the arrival of Serbs were built by the Byzantines. None of them still stand. All Christian churches today in Kosovo were built by the Serbs (I believe Catholic Albanians may have built one or two Catholic churches in the last few years, but that's it).

Third of all, the Dardanians were a Thracian tribe, not an Illyrian one.

And finally, here is some information about population of Kosovo in the 1400's, from Turkish sources (in other words, strongly anti-Serbian):

Turkish cadastral tax census (defter)9 of the Brankovic dynasty lands (covering 80% of present_day Kosovo and Metohija) recorded 480 villages, 13,693 adult males, 12,985 dwellings, 14,087 household heads (480 widows and 13,607 adult males). By ethnicity:

12,985 Serbian dwellings present in all 480 villages and towns
75 Vlach dwellings in 34 villages
46 Albanian dwellings in 23 villages
17 Bulgarian dwellings in 10 villages
5 Greek dwellings in Lausa, Vucitrn
1 Jewish dwelling in Vucitrn
1 Croat dwelling

Here is an Austrian source:

A study done in 1871 by Austrian colonel Peter Kukulj for the internal use of the Austro_Hungarian army showed that the mutesarifluk of Prizren (corresponding largely to present_day Kosovo and Metohija) had some 500,000 inhabitants, of which:

318.000 Serbs (64%),
161.000 Albanians (32%),
10.000 Roma (Gypsies) and Circassians,
2.000 Turks

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Demographic-history-of-Kosovo

Now Chris Blaku tell us again how Serbs were never more than 10% of the population.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Turkish and Austrian sources are actually Serbian propaganda. I can see I'm dealing with a real genius here.

Anonymous said...

How convenient, you simply disregard any source which doesn't agree with you. Yugoslav sources from WWII onwards were very precise. Communists were known for their meticulous record-keeping. And from the time of autonomy in Kosovo until 1989, the census was under direct control of the Albaian authorities themselves.

I'm still curious how you disregard the Turkish source from 1455 as inaccurate? Turks were always strongly anti-Serbian, surely they wouldn't have tried to falsely claim Serbs being a majority in Kosovo if they weren't? LOL... What about the Austrian sources, why would Austrians claim Serbs a majority if they weren't? Don't be ridiculous...

And Turkish, Austrian, and Italian sources all agree that at the turn of the century Kosovo's total population was roughly 500,000. So how could a million Albanians have been driven out of Kosovo at that time?! In fact, the entire population of Albania wasn't even a million at the turn of the century (it reached 1 million around 1930).

In fact, not only were Albanians not always the majority in Kosovo, but they weren't even the majority in Albania until 1769. Aromanians were, and the Albanians becamse the majority by assimilating, driving out, and killing thousands of Aromanians in that year when they destroyed their capital of Moscopolis.

The only major ethnic cleansing of Albanians occured in 1945 when Greece kicked out all the Albanians out of Chameria. But those Albanians had collaborated with the Nazis, so it can easily be argued that the Greeks were fully justified in it (the Serbs should have done the same to the Albanians in Kosovo but they didn't).

Illyrian is most certainly not "universally" accepted to be satem. The vast majority of linguists consider it to be centum. The ONLY historians who consider it satem are those who try to link it to Albanian, and they have no proof for a satem language, the only reason they claim it to be satem is in order to be able to link it to Albanian.

I would like to see you back up your statement that "it has been proven that Illyrian was a satem language". This has certainly not been proven. Also if you knew anything about linguistics you would know that there are no proofs in linguistics, only stronger and weaker arguments. Linguistics isn't math.

Anyways I am arguing with someone far less knowledgeable than myself about this subject so I would suggest that you read the following link to get up to speed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_Albanians

It describes in detail every possible theory of Albanian origin and convers everything you could want to know. Also note that none of the sources there are of Serbian origin.

Anonymous said...

“Yugoslav sources from WWII onwards were very precise. Communists were known for their meticulous record-keeping”

We are very well aware of this, since most of the record keeping was done by the Serbs.


“I'm still curious how you disregard the Turkish source from 1455 as inaccurate? Turks were always strongly anti-Serbian, surely they wouldn't have tried to falsely claim Serbs being a majority in Kosovo if they weren't?


How? During that period unlike Serbs the Albanians, under the leadership of Gjergj Kastrioti-SKENDERBEG, as a nation were the protectors of the whole Christian civilization. Therefore, unlike Serbs, Albanians never paid taxes to their enemy, which is why you have to disregard those sources. Furthermore, for his invaluable contribution to the protection of European civilization, Skanderbeg earned during his lifetime the titles of “Protector of Christianity”, “Athlete of Christ”. You can not say that for any Serbs, which under ottoman empire not only survived physically, but were able to preserve (and steel) much of their culture as well as their lives.


“What about the Austrian sources, why would Austrians claim Serbs a majority if they weren't? Don't be ridiculous.”

If you are knowledgeable about this subject, as you claim, I would suggest that you use your analytical mind (if still functioning) to come across as one that deserves that claim. Saying that, the government of Serbia invaded from their chauvinist trend to annex the Albanian lands, declared publicly in the year 1844 the known program with the name of "Naçertanie" and from the governors of Athens under the name of "Megali Ideja". Under their greedy nationalist claims, Belgrade and Athens, found very quickly a political and military common language to divide among themselves the Albanian lands.
This common language was first presented in the secret talks that were developed by Serbian and Greek diplomats in Istanbul, in 1862 and were materialized in their hidden alliance with Austria, in Vesllau for the partitioning of the Albanian lands among themselves with the common border the river of Shkumbin and further the road Egnatia.

This makes the Austrian sources that you refer to as unreliable. There are many facts that can prove their biased nature.


“The only major ethnic cleansing of Albanians occured in 1945 when Greece kicked out all the Albanians out of Chameria. But those Albanians had collaborated with the Nazis, so it can easily be argued that the Greeks were fully justified in it (the Serbs should have done the same to the Albanians in Kosovo but they didn't)”

This shows your true colors. A Serb nationalist or Serb biased that will find excuses to justify the crimes committed against the Albanians.
The major ethnic cleansing of Albanians by the Greek is not related to Nazis in anyway possible. Those were as a result of a campaign that at the center of it had the anti-Albanian programs that were prepared jointly with the Serbs.

As far as the Nazis go you should probably read a book by Philip J. Cohen, David Riesman:Serbia's Secret War: Propaganda and the Deceit of History by

This book written by Cohen (himself an American Jew) sheds some much needed light on the Serb fascist puppet state during WWII, and the atrocities that took place there. Ethnic Serbs took active part in the prosecution and genocide of Jews, resulting in Serbia being one of the first states in Europe to be declared 'Judenfrei'. There were never much resistance to the German forces stationed in Serbia Proper during WWII. The Zbor and Chetniks [Serb fascist forces] who were actively killing Muslims and Albanians [and collaborating in the prosecution and killing of Jews] were the most active military units in this area - not the German Wehrmacht.

What this meticolously documented book shows, is the art of the Serb propaganda after WWII trying to demonise especially Croats as a genocidal fascist nation and the Serbs as being all Partisans and most importantly victims on the same level as the Jews being killed during WWII. If you tell a lie a hundred times, it becomes the truth. By repeating the same lies over and over again, the Serb propaganda machinery has effectively created a myth that says all Serbs were victims during WWII. This is far from the truth, as many actively collaborated with the Nazis, and many more took a part in the killing of Jews, Albanians, Bosnians and Croats. This book illuminates an ugly part of Serbian history not widely known outside the former Yugoslavia. Much of the material is sourced from archives primarily in Belgrade, which should speak volumes (the above are some of the reviews that were written about the book).

According to the language you used “(the Serbs should have done the same to the Albanians in Kosovo but they didn't)” and Cohen, Albanians and Croats should have ethnically cleansed Balkans from Serbs.

As far as the our ancestors, Illyrians, go I am not going to even waste my energy on you. It will be like talking to my dog whatever you might say to him he will just bark nonsense.


Furthermore, most of the archives containing anything to do with the Albanians have been destroyed by both Greek and Serbian academia. As a dear friend of mine put it, the books containing Albanian pages were either stolen or their pages ripped off. However, not all of archives have been fully explored. Thanks to the booming Albanian society and the youth with great potentials those facts are going to come to light one day.

Regards,
Faruki

PS the website that you are suggesting is done mostly by serb biased individuals